We examine the equilibrium and adjustment of exchange rates in the Chinese silver standard economy, 1928–1935. We find a robust long-run relationship between the Chinese dollar exchange rate and the metallic value of the Chinese dollar. The deviation from the equilibrium is short-lived and is...

The Boxer uprising in China (1900) killed quite a number of foreigners and missionaries, which induced the armies of eight Western powers to invade China and they imposed an indemnity of 400 million silver taels. The international silver price around the 1900s was slumping, and these...

Fun and Useful -- Welcome! -- Dead Men’s Wrong Ideas? -- Pioneers and Contenders -- Wealth and Power: Mercantilism -- The Physiocrats and Law of Nature -- Classical School -- Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand of the Market Mechanism -- Thomas Malthus and Effectual Demand -- David Ricardo and...

We show how the silver standard transmitted world silver price fluctuations into China and made the Chinese price level closely linked to the world silver price. Inflation was transmitted between 1929 and 1931 when the world silver price was falling; while deflation was transmitted during 1932...